Gayle Appel Doll

Gayle is the Director of the Center on Aging at Kansas State University. She received her master’s degree from Kansas State University in Kinesiology and her doctorate in 2003 in Life Span Human Development. Under her direction the number of students enrolling in gerontology courses at Kansas State has increased by more than 500 percent since 2005. She teaches gerontology courses, earning the Commerce Bank award for Outstanding Undergraduate teaching in 2005. Some of those courses are for the Great Plains IDEA distance master’s program in gerontology. She has headed the PEAK education team in developing educational materials to advance culture change in long-term care and more broadly on quality of life for frail elders. Due to her most recent research, Gayle is viewed as an expert in the field of sexuality in nursing homes and is currently writing a book on the subject. Gayle has worked closely with Steve Shields at Meadowlark Hills to develop a Kansas State learning community on the Meadowlark campus where she teaches intergenerational courses. In her free time she enjoys her family – three sons and a daughter-in-law, a husband, two cats, two dogs – gardening, painting, quilting, running, biking and jumping out of or off of things.